Sam Burgess’ World Cup campaign is in doubt after suffering a suspected medial ligament injury.
The England forward limped off during the first-half of their defeat to Australia and didn’t return for the second-half.
Wayne Bennett confirmed the 28-year-old had suffered a suspected knee injury that will likely keep him out for three to four weeks, although he will go through further tests in the coming days.
Burgess’ absence is an undoubted blow to England’s aspirations of winning the competition, however Bennett was optimistic at the way his side responded to Burgess removal.
“Sam is always going to be a loss to any team,” he said.
“But we managed without him for 60 minutes tonight and we didn’t lose a lot of momentum.”
Meanwhile, Bennett was left encouraged by his side’s performance, after England outplayed the world champions in the second-half.
“I’m pretty happy with it overall actually. It was a top effort from the guys. It was a top test match and they’ve improved a lot since London.
“They hung in there really good and played some good football. They reduced some of their errors, it’s still not where we want to be, but it was a big improvement.
“Tonight wasn’t the destination it was just the part of a journey. We have to remind ourselves of that. The next four or five weeks we have to get all of these little things right.”
